A former Manhattan Beach police officer fired from the force for his role in an off-duty, alcohol-related hit-and-run crash with two other officers lost his appeal to get his job back Wednesday, then blasted his former employer as the “Manhattan Beach Pretenders Department.”

Judge Joanne O’Donnell denied Eric Eccles’ attempt to overturn his termination in 2011 for the Jan. 31, 2010, crash and subsequent cover-up. Two other officers also were fired, including one prosecuted for leaving the scene of the crash, and a lieutenant was demoted to officer.

As he emerged from O’Donnell’s courtroom in Los Angeles Superior Court, Eccles handed the Daily Breeze a written statement and asked a reporter to print it. Not surprisingly, the letter blasted former Police Chief Rod Uyeda, who along with City Manager David Carmany made the decision to fire Eccles

“In the end, this verdict is completely irrelevant,” Eccles wrote. “Win or lose, I had no intention of ever going back to that agency. The Manhattan Beach Pretenders Department got 14 more years of my life than they should have. Not working there bothers me as much as not having cancer.”

The statement was the first comment Eccles has made on the crash, which court documents revealed occurred after he, Officer Kristopher Thompson and Officer Richard Hatten climbed into Hatten’s two-seat Corvette and drove onto Sepulveda Boulevard after drinking for seven to eight hours in a bar.

Hatten rear-ended an Audi just 220 feet into their journey, shoving it into the back of a Honda Fit at a red light. The officers drove away and did not return to the crash scene.

In her ruling, O’Donnell said she agreed with an arbitrator who earlier ruled that Eccles knew Hatten was drunk, consistently told investigators that Hatten wasn’t drunk, failed to report the crash to an officer who responded to the scene, and distanced himself from the collision.

In Eccles’ attempt to overturn his firing, he had argued he had no way of knowing Hatten was drunk or that the crash was a crime. O’Donnell rejected that.

“(Eccles) protestations that he had no subjective belief that the accident was serious or that he had witnessed a potential crime is simply not credible,” O’Donnell wrote. “(Eccles) engaged in dishonesty when he failed to honestly participate in the investigation of a crime he personally witnessed.”

Hatten admitted to investigators during a probe that he was indeed drunk and never walked back to the crash scene after parking on Dianthus Street. Eccles, who had been sitting on Thompson’s lap in the car, left the scene with him.

One of the crash victims spotted the yellow car and reported it to Officer Jeff Goodrich, who was on duty and handling the crash. Goodrich ran the license plate number, found it belonged to Hatten and called his watch commander, Lt. Bryan Klatt, to the scene. Klatt told him to find Hatten, but court documents revealed that Hatten, Thompson and Eccles went out that night to drink again.

No one impounded the car. In fact, the officers, including Goodrich, took it home to Hatten’s residence.

By the next day, when word of the crash reached the chief, Uyeda put Eccles, Thompson, Hatten and Goodrich on paid leave. Following a year-long Sheriff’s Department investigation, Uyeda fired Thompson, Eccles and Hatten, who pleaded no contest to leaving the scene of a crash and was sentenced to three years probation and 45 days of roadwork.

Goodrich died of cancer before the investigation was completed. Klatt was demoted from lieutenant to officer and remains with the force.

In court Wednesday, Manhattan Beach’s attorney, Peter Brown, revealed that when Goodrich called Klatt to the abandoned Corvette, he told Klatt that Hatten had not been driving the car.

Eccles was the only officer to appeal an arbitrator’s ruling upholding the firings. As part of his Superior Court appeal, Eccles complained that Klatt’s punishment should have been more severe than his because Klatt was the working watch commander. Brown told O’Donnell on Wednesday, however, that a two-step demotion was very severe. Klatt was provided information from Goodrich that Hatten was not the driver, Brown said.

The judge also said Eccles’ firing was justified over Klatt’s demotion because Klatt was not involved in the actual crash.

Although Hatten was prosecuted, Eccles and Thompson were not. The District Attorney’s Office said passengers cannot be prosecuted for leaving a crash scene. Eccles said that was “the only judgment of significance” in the case. Prosecutors, he said, “completely absolved me of allegations of misconduct and readily acknowledged I had no control of Officer Hatten’s actions, before, during or after the incident.

“My name has already been cleared multiple times, on levels far more meaningful than department policies manipulated by biased managers and rubber-stamped labor hearings,” his statement said.

Eccles said his “determined employer ignored cumulative exoneration to hold me vicariously liable for another man’s mistakes. It is beyond absurd to hold me and Thompson accountable for Hatten’s independent decisions, especially while off duty.”

Eccles said the “barrage of misleading accusations” were used by Uyeda to “rid himself of an outspoken critic when the opportunity came along.” He called the retired chief a “very small man with a very big Napoleonic complex.”

“Ex-chief Uyeda’s ego fueled this crusade, making witnesses, whom he personally hated, as culpable as the offender. He transferred blame and responsibility with impunity to justify a shameful agenda,” Eccles said.

Eccles’ attorney, Bill Seki, said the department lost its “finest officer” and a “smart guy.” He did not rule out an appeal, although Eccles said in the court hallway earlier that his case was ending.

Uyeda said he was pleased for the city and the law enforcement profession that the “judge’s strong ruling supported the disciplinary decisions made by the city and the independent arbitrator in this matter.”

“As for Mr. Eccles’ statement, I could only say that the city of Manhattan Beach has done everything to ensure the investigation was independent and conclusions reached have been vetted and strongly agreed upon by every level of appeal to date. I continue to wish him well in his endeavors.”

Larry Altman has covered crime and court proceedings in Southern California since 1987. A graduate of Cal State Northridge, where he served as editor of the college newspaper, Altman has worked for the Daily Breeze since 1990. The Society of Professional Journalists named him a "Distinguished Journalist" in Los Angeles in 2006. Altman's work was featured twice on CBS' “48 Hours” and he appeared eight times with “Nancy Grace," who called him "dear." He has covered hundreds of homicides and many trials. Altman has crawled through a mausoleum to open a coffin, confronted husbands who killed their wives, wives who killed their husbands, and his coverage helped put a child molester and a murderer in prison. In his spare time, Altman is an avid Los Angeles Lakers and Dodgers fan, is the commissioner of a Fantasy Baseball league with several other current and former newspapermen, runs a real estate empire and likes to watch old movies on TCM.